Explore Your Strengths
Your most important job in life is to be yourself, as true as you can be.
Part of that is to figure out who "yourself" is — what's important to you, what motivates you, and what you're good at: your strengths. This post is about how to figure out your strengths, why they're important, and how you can use them.
People who use their strengths are happier and more engaged, at work and in the rest of their lives. You'll make more of an impact using your strengths than you will trying to get good at things that don't come naturally, so this is work worth doing.
How to figure out your strengths
There are a few ways to find out what your strengths are.
Photo by Attentie Attentie
Just think about it
For a start, you can simply think about what your strengths are. Set aside some time and pull out a pen and paper, or your favourite note-taking app, and make a list.
It can be helpful to recall something you're proud of achieving and think of the characteristics that led you to that success. But sometimes it can be hard to see those characteristics, especially if you take them for granted, or if you think the accomplishment is something "anyone" could do.
In the case, you can try a trick I learned from the Ask a Manager blog: Imagine what would have happened if you had done really badly in that situation. Like, really badly, far worse than you actually did.
Here's an example. Lately I've been applying for jobs. In order to write a good resume and cover letter you have to have a clear idea of your strengths and how you demonstrated them in previous jobs.
Unfortunately, at the time I was feeling pretty down, and I was having trouble seeing my past as anything but a series of bad choices and failures. That doesn't make for a great resume!
I was in immediate need of a new perspective — no time for regrets and self-pity. I needed to find a way to present my dubious employment history as a series of wins and accomplishments.
So I made a table. Each row listed a previous job or other accomplishment. The columns were: imaginary terrible performance; what actually happened; what I did to make that happen.
For example, for a while I worked the tech support phone and email lines at a small software company. The worst possible performance for that job might have been if I'd arrived late or left early all the time; if I never answered the phone or replied to email; if I answered the phone but was rude or unhelpful; if I didn't learn the software well enough to explain it; or if I didn't work with coworkers to answer more complicated questions.
As it turns out, none of those things actually happened! I worked my hours, I answered the phone and replied to email, I learned the software and did my best to help people, and I followed up with my coworkers to answer the hardest, most technical questions.
I thought about the difference between those two columns and I concluded that the strengths I showed in that position were conscientiousness, communication skills, and ability to learn.
If you repeat this exercise for a few different accomplishments and you'll probably end up with a solid list of strengths.
Thinking about your strengths is a good start, but it won't give you the whole picture. For one thing, there are likely to be areas where you underestimate yourself because you struggle with that strength, or you don't meet your own standards.
For example, I wouldn't consider writing a strength of mine because I often find it frustrating and I'm usually unhappy with what I produce. But enough other people have said I'm a good writer that I guess I must be okay.
Conversely, you might discount a strength that comes too easily. For example, if you have a great memory and never forget an appointment, you might take that ability for granted and not consider it a strength. But other people struggle to remember appointments and other commitments.
And finally, you might overlook a strength because you didn't think of that personality trait as a strength. I was surprised when "zest" came up my results for an assessment, because it hadn't occurred to me that getting excited about things might be a strength.
Here are two ways to get an outside perspective on your strengths.
Take an assessment
I recommended the VIA Character Strength assessment in my post about values because the results can inform your values, but the test is actually designed, as the name suggests, to identify your strengths. It's a fairly quick assessment, the basic list is free, and it will give you an ordered list of 24 strengths.
Everyone gets the same 24 strengths in their list — the difference is the order of the strengths, and the most significant are the first five or ten. Their website has lots of ideas about how to explore and use your strengths.
Another strengths test is the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment. It costs a few dollars and, like the VIA assessment, gives you an ordered list of strengths.
The results for both of these tests are reliable and repeatable, and both organizations have lots of information about how to interpret the results, and how to explore and use your strengths. I've taken both assessments and find the results of the two tests to match up pretty well.
Ask people
Another way to discover your strengths is to ask the people around you to name three strengths they see in you. If you hear from a few people, you'll soon see a few things that keep on coming up, and they might be things that you take for granted.
This is admittedly a weird thing to do, but I promise it's worth it. If it makes it easier, blame me: "I'm doing this coaching thing and I have a really weird favour to ask..." I have done this twice for two different coaching programs, and I'm still friends with all the people I asked (even the people I asked twice!)
How to use strengths
Once you know your strengths you can apply them in various ways to make your life better.
To tackle situations
Life is full of situations, and they're not always the situations you might have hoped for. If you find yourself in an unwanted situation, your strengths can help you get through it.
For example, suppose you get laid off and you find yourself looking for work. (Look, this example is going to keep coming up until I get a damn job.) You're gonna have to do the same things everyone has to do: polish up your resume, reach out to your network, and tune up your cover-letter writing and interview skills.
Applying your unique set of strengths can help you with those necessary steps. A strength of zest, say, might have you approaching the job hunt as an adventure and a chance to meet new people and learn about the interesting companies, organizations, and jobs out there. With a strength of prudence you'll spend carefully while you're not earning, and prepare thoroughly for interviews. A strength of creativity might lead to cover letters that catch a hiring manager's eye, or a new approach to job hunting altogether.
(And don't forget to work those strengths into your resume by showing how you applied them at previous positions!)
To make decisions
Knowing your strengths can help with making decisions.
Suppose your job hunt has gone so well that you're considering two different job offers. When you're looking at the pros and cons of each position, add strengths to the mix: How will you be able to apply your strengths at each position? Will they call on your weaknesses, and if so, how do you feel about the work of developing your weaknesses?
If you're working in a team, knowing your strengths can help divide up the work in a sensible way. Someone who has a strength of social intelligence might flourish as the leader, while a teammate with a strength of diligence can be in charge of record-keeping or note-taking.
To cheer yourself up
Reminding yourself of your strengths can lift your spirits when you feel down. If that job hunt drags on, you can take some comfort in knowing that you do definitely have those strengths, even if the hiring managers of the world don't seem impressed.
It can be helpful to pick a specific strength and think about how you have used it lately, or how you could use it now to lift your spirits. If you have a strength of learning or curiosity, maybe you could watch a documentary about a subject that intrigues you, or plan a trip to a museum or exhibit.
Play with your strengths
Even when you're not facing a challenge or a slump it's still rewarding to play with your strengths. Just for fun, you can choose a specific strength and explore ways to apply it through your day.
For example, as I said above, my #6 strength according to VIA is zest; I "approach everything with excitement and energy". So I might play with this strength by seeing how I can approach an otherwise dull day with zest and enthusiasm. What adventures can I find in taking the streetcar or walking a few blocks to the store?
If this sounds like Pollyanna-ish purgatory to you, well, you might not have zest as a strength! The point of playing with your strengths is to explore what you're good and and try applying it in new situations, not to suffer and improve yourself. You might enjoy applying your strength in, say, spirituality. That would be less fun for me because it's my number 22!
Photo by Fuu J
When to focus on weaknesses
Sticking with your strengths most of the time is good practice, but there can be reward in working in areas of weakness.
Release of expectations
When I was in university I knew a woman who was a brilliant mathematician and computer scientist — she's now a professor of robotics. One day she told me she had taken up a new hobby: diving. I struggled so much with classes that I couldn't conceive of having a hobby — it was all I could do to keep my head above the metaphorical water of academia without dealing with literal water.
When I expressed my amazement, she explained, "I'm enjoying doing something that I'm not expected to be good at." Yes, she was brilliant, but in some ways that brilliance was a burden — her family, her professors, her peers, and she herself, all expected her to do well at mathematics and computer science. She lived up to those expectations, but she felt the weight of them nonetheless. In diving, an activity that no-one had any expectations of, she was able to find a break from ambition and achievement.
There's freedom and lightness in exploring a pasttime that you might not be very good at, especially if you're a person who is driven to excellence.
To develop a specific skill
One of the things I learned from the book Grit by Angela Duckworth is that one thing that successful people do is directed practice: that is, intentional practice designed to improve weaknesses. In directed practice, you need to look your weaknesses squarely in the face.
At this point it's necessary to explore the difference between skills and strengths, because the words are often used interchangeably but there a subtle difference between them that becomes relevant here.
A skill is something you're good at, like singing or cooking or using Excel. Skills are usually applicable to a particular situation, and don't generalize: my singing ability is of no use when it's 5 pm and everyone's hungry. Skills usually encompass knowledge (for example, about different ingredients or the temperature to bake biscuits at) as well as techniques, like how to use a knife or knead bread.
Skills can be learned and improved with training and practice. If you're naturally good at a skill, or learn very quickly, people say you're talented. (Actually people will say you're talented even if you started off mediocre and worked your ass off to improve, but that's another topic for another day.)
A strength is a quality or attribute that you have, like kindness, patience, leadership or optimism. Strengths are general and can be applied in any situation, and they don't entail any particular knowledge or techniques.
You can develop your strengths — they aren't fixed. But strengths aren't what we're talking about when we talk about directed practice. Directed practice builds a skill, and specifically the technique part of a skill — your knife technique, your back stroke, your pronounciation of a new language.
Directed practice isn't necessarily fun, so it helps to find motivation for it: ambition, pride, conscientiousness, or looking forward to being better at the thing you're practicing.
For me, I have a very bad memory. In most of my life I work around it by writing everything down and setting lots of alarms and other reminders. But I'm trying to learn a second language, and no number of alarms and notes will help me when I'm in the middle of a sentence and I can't remember the word for "library" — it needs to be in my brain.
So I practice vocabulary, drilling for minutes or hours every week with flashcards. It's slow, it can be tedious and frustrating, but it eventually works. And after all that, the satisfaction of being able to express myself without a dictionary or translation app makes it worth all the effort.
It's worth pointing out that your strengths can help with directed practice to improve a skill. For me, my strengths of love of learning and playfulness help my vocabulary practice. Love of learning helps me relish when I finally master some sticky vocabulary and recognize it in the wild. And playfulness means I can approach the study as a game rather than a chore.
Know your tools
To knowing your strengths is to know what you have in your toolbox. You can apply these tools to tackle problems and face challenges, and to strengthen your confidence. It can also be fun to play with strengths (or weaknesses), and try out new ways to apply them in different contexts.